1 Down, 1 to Go

Greetings All,

I promise that I will post pictures of the shed and deck soon. My wife is taking pictures of the whole process, so they are being taken.

Tonight was the last night of my Tuesday class. I am pretty confident that I got an A in that class. YEA ME! Dr. Johnson is a pretty amazing teacher. I still hated writing papers for him, but what do you do. I did learn a lot, however, I am excited to continue on in the program and see what other classes bring to my knowledge base.

Our yard is sure coming together.

Yesterday, I was able to round up my father and a friend and we got the floor built. That alone was a 4 hour project. I was shocked that it takes so long to build things. (Side note for those of you who don't know me very well, I am SO NOT handy it is sad. So nothing in this department should shock you!) Today I was hoping to get all 4 walls pounded out. I was able to get all the lumber for the rear and two side walls marked and ready to cut before my father was able to come with his saw. He cut the wood and I was able to help him get the rear wall built before I had to get ready for my class.

Class only went for 2 hours tonight. That was nice. I was able to see almost all of my son's little league game. He did so good. He got a run, was able to pitch, play outfield, and cheer for his team (he only gets to play about 1/2 of every game).

After the game we came home and I laid out and created one of the 20 foot wall frames. The other wall is ready to be nailed, I just need to get it done. That is my goal for tomorrow.

It has been so HOT and HUMID that I am dying. It is after 10pm here and still the temp. is in the high 80's. YUCK!

My paycheck came in today and we were able to pay bills. That is a love hate thing for me. I love to get them paid and know that we are actually staying in our budget. I hate that when we are done, we are done for the month as far as money to spend is concerned! That gets very frustrating. I was able to start the process to get my lane change for my pay schedule at school so that extra little bit will help and I am thankful for that.

I think I have a 2 new companies to add to my Companies I Hate list. These candidates are shocking additions, even for me. The first company on the chopping block is none other than American Express. I was just the recipient of a 3% interest rate increase and was told "it was across the board and there is nothing we can do about it". There reasoning is "due to the economy, we felt we needed to raise the rates!". Hello- really?

Company number 2 on the block is SUTHERLAND'S. Not only has the lumber from my $2000 shed been brittle, it is warped, cracked, and crappy! We are taking pictures so I can e-mail them and share how wonderful their lumber is and tell them thank you for taking such great care of me, as a customer. Also, their shed plans leave much to be desired in the way of information. I guess they expect an expert carpenter to be on hand to decipher what they have written. If you have already forgotten, see the note above about my amazing skills in this department!.

Anyways, I've not made my final decision about these two yet. We (my wife and I) have to decide if we are going to cancel our AMEX card and keep our current rate to pay off our balance, or just eat it for now and work on getting the rate lowered in a few months to a year.

Well, now that I told you way more than you most likely cared to know, I will end this and head to bed. More exciting adventures coming your way tomorrow!

Later...